Whale
Watching Trips

Isle
of Mull

How was the 2006 Season for you? Here on Mull, we enjoyed a proper Summer!, with some fantastic
weather through July and August. 2006 has also proved a very good year on the
water for Sealife Surveys, with a few very special sightings.

I'm sure you will have read Skipper Jimbo's
account of our First Ever Recorded Sighting of Fin whales on the West
coast of Scotland,
in May?!... Well, 2006 brought another First for Sealife Surveys (SLS), on the
15th of September - 3 Northern Bottlenose whales! (This is
the species that famously swum up the Thames
in January - the sad outcome of which was sombrely observed by the Nation.) Our
"Scottish" Bottlenose whales were spotted by a local fisherman, heading out of
Loch Sunart. He alerted us to their presence, assuming them to be Minkes and
knowing we'd be interested! Two of our boats were near the area at the time,
and it was only when one of our most experienced guides spotted a very obvious
blow in the distance, still en route, that our fascination increased.

Such were the calm conditions, we would
almost-never expect to see a Minke whale's blow - their's are very low and
indistinct, and therefore rarely used as an observational tool.Also, the size and shape of these animals we
were glimpsing at the surface was all wrong for a Minke.. Bottlenose whales are
8-10m in length, about the same as a Minke, but with more rotund bodies, an
egg-shaped forehead and long beak; quite different to the cigar-shaped body of
a Minke, with a piked head! Both are a similar dark-grey colour, with
relatively small dorsal fins set behind their mid-back, but their surfacing
patterns are quite different!

Northern
Bottlenose whales belong to a family of deep-diving whales called the beaked
whales (Ziphiidae). Spending the majority of their lives in the cool,
sub-arctic waters of the North Atlantic, these
whales can dive to depths of 100m, for up to 2 hours, in search of deep-sea
squid. So, NOT the easiest whales to watch from a boat then. Scientists, let
alone members of the public, are rarely lucky enough to catch a glimpse of
these elusive creatures. Their oceanic lifestyle has, in fact, led to a great
gap in our knowledge of beaked whales, with many aspects of their ecology and
life history remaining a mystery.

Curiously, Northern bottlenose whales turn up from time to time around our
coasts, often very close to the shore. And this is a bit of a treat for any
observers. Over the last decade, northern bottlenose whales have been reported
to our Mull-based cetacean charity, the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust
(HWDT) just four times, previous to SLS's 2006 sighting. The
whales seen here in September were thought to be 2 adults and a juvenile. All
our crew and customers caught sight of was a few blows & the odd curve of
grey body, as they surfaced briefly to breathe, before returning to the deep. A
short sighting; but very sweet!

2006 was also remarkable for our (only!) Killer
Whale (or Orca) sighting of the year. The largest of the dolphin family, SLS
only see Orca a few times a year. Not strictly resident to the Hebridean coast,
they travel through our waters, and not a great deal is known about where they
go in between! However, SLS have recorded a total of nine individuals who have
frequented local waters for over 20 years.Our "dominant male", named John Coe, was first seen as far back as
Christmas Day 1981!!

Now, Orcaare
one of the most wide-ranging mammals on earth, andare generally grouped into one of three
categories: Resident Orca are thought to roam relatively locally, feeding on a
variety of fish. Transient Orca are much wider ranging, thought to travel great
distances to take seals and even smaller marine mammals, having a much broader
diet. Little is know of the third group, the Off-Shore Orca, due to the nature
of their habitat range!

Now, SLS and HWDT have previously thought of "our"
Orca as Resident to Scottish coasts. From sightings reported to HWDT of
recognised individuals, we assumed they "only" journeyed as far as Kintyre in
the South, and maybe as far North and East as the Shetland and Orkney Isles,
when they weren't with us. But our August sighting blew everything out of the
water - quite literally!..

Our SLS whale-watch boat "Alpha Beta" was cruising
off Staffa, tracking porpoises, when suddenly
one of them BREACHED fully out of the sea!! As any of you who have been out to
sea with us in the past will know, Harbour Porpoise just don't do that! In
fact, one of the main distinguishing behavioural points between dolphin and
porpoise, is that dolphins WILL breach (leap clear of the water), whereas
porpoise "never" do... The explanation here wasn't far behind. Our breaching
porpoise was followed out of the water by. the hungry face of a Killer whale!!
Customers and crew alike felt privileged yet helpless, watching the red teeth
of nature in action, like it was something off the telly! We just needed Sir
David Attenborough for the vision to be complete..

Now, the Shetland Isles have had all-time record
sightings of Orca this year, some observed taking Otters and even Eider ducks
from very shallow waters. Yet, our only SLS sighting of the year is the first
recorded sighting of "our" Orca preying on mammals off the West coast of Scotland.
Recognised through

the Photo-Identification work that we do, together
with HWDT, enabling us to record individual whales, our only Orca sighting of
2006 proved to be one to remember, eh!?

So, quality not quantity.. Well, our Minke whale
sightings this year echoed the trend that we began to notice in 2005. Really
good sightings from May through to July (after our first sighting of 4 whales
on 21st April in 2006). Followed by a much quieter August and
September than SLS have been used to, for the last 20 years! And it wasn't JUST
us. In mild panic that we may be losing our touch(!), we contacted wildlife
operators up the West coast of Scotland.
And all were lamenting similar stories. This included colleagues who annually
spend late summer off Arasaig, collecting Minke whale data for Sea Watch
Foundation. In the past, this has proved to be the best time of year to spot
whales further North (- as was the case off Mull).
This year, these very experienced watchers spent weeks covering wide amounts of
sea on fast boats (with even a spell of helicopter assistance!),. and nothing
more to report than trusty Harbour Porpoise. Oh, and a courtesy visit from a
pod of Common dolphins (- in sympathy?!...).

"So, where have all the whales gone!?..." we hear
you cry! Well for a start, dear reader, they haven't "all" gone. And the fact
that we can go to sea all-day, every-day, from April to October and still have
a damn good chance of spotting these awesome marine mammals, within 300m3
of survey area, when they only need surface for 3 seconds to breathe, is a
privilege in itself. And one we should never take for granted - we certainly
have no right to expect daily whale sightings. Especially when you consider
what Norway, Japan and Iceland are increasingly doing, to
relatively-local populations of these gentle giants..

The findings of an IFAW-sponsored independent
legal panel are clear - Japan's
so-called 'scientific' whaling is unlawful. 'Scientific' whaling is about
whaling, not science. Commercial whaling is a cruel and outmoded industry
producing products nobody needs. Yet in October this year, Iceland broke
their 21 year-old international moratorium (ban) on commercial whaling, by
killing an endangered Fin whale. Known as the most popular whale-watching
destination in Europe, Iceland
has new targets to kill 9 Fin whales and 30 Minkes each year. (We have no idea
whether these are "our" Minkes. It is quite feasible that whales seen off Scotland could
swim as far as Icelandic & Norwegian waters to feed. These "scientific"
whalers do not practice any Photo-ID techniques to help us identify individual
movements.)

The whales aren't saved. Japan doubled the number of whales it killed in
2006 (to nearly 1,000) in an international whale sanctuary around Antarctica. Japanese whalers plan to double the number
they will kill in the next several years, adding 2 protected species, fin and
humpback whales, to their target list. I'll come down from my soap box for now,
but PLEASE visit www.stopwhaling.org to see what you can do to
help IFAW save our whales, for all of us.

Now, for the last 20 years, September has been one
of the best times to watch whales off Scotland's West coast (- with the
exception of the last 2!) We know Minkes visit our waters each summer to feed.
With herring and spratt reaching a very tasty size by the end of the summer,
Minkes have made the most of feasting on this bounty, prior to their long
journey South to breed in warmer waters. And I think it is at this time of year
that we've seen most change. This year we had only 2 whale sightings in
September - on the 4th, and the 23rd, which was our last
sighting of 2006.

We could discuss lots of different theories by way
of explanation. One very real threat is climate change, and we know this from
trends seen in other cetacean species.Research published by Colin Macleod and a team
from AberdeenUniversity in August 2005, shows, FOR
THE FIRST TIME, that climate change has been directly linked to a change in
occurrence of a whale or dolphin species.(Aberdeen University, the Scottish Agricultural College in Inverness &
the National Museums of Scotland in Edinburgh have been examining trends in
strandings of whales and dolphins since 1948).

Scientists found that cold-water species, such
as the White-beaked dolphin, are now stranding less frequently, while
warm-water species are being recorded more frequently. This includes the
Striped dolphin, a warm-water species that had not been recorded in Scotland
before 1988. These findings follow the pattern expected if the warming of the
sea around the UK
is responsible for these changes.

Colin Macleod's team found that trends in
strandings are mirrored by changes in sightings of dolphin species.
White-beaked dolphins are found only in the shallower waters of the northern North Atlantic. Until the late 1990s, the West Coast of
Scotland had some of the highest numbers of this species in Europe.
However, by 2003, this cold-water species had been replaced by Common dolphins
- a species found only in warmer waters. This change accompanies an increase in
sea temperatures around the UK,
of up to 0.4oC per decade since 1981.

Some sobering science - are
we going to see warmer-water whales "replace" our Minkes!?...We certainly had an awesome Common dolphins
encounter on 24th June this year - with about 250 animals WITHIN the
Sound of Mull! This is the most any of our Skippers can ever remember seeing,
all together, so close in-shore. (Common dolphins, being an oceanic species,
are usually seen further out to sea.). This just happened to be the day we'd
arranged for a helicopter to film our SLS boats out on the water, as part of a
TV advert being made for VisitScotland. So, someone up there was smiling on us,
in the face of climate change..

2006 HAS been a fantastic year for Sea Eagle
sightings, with an adult (6 yrs old) & juvenile (less than 4 yr old)
appearing to have paired up in the romantic setting of BloodyBay
(- well, they are BIG carnivores after all.) Without dorsal fins to distinguish
individuals, RSPB monitor Mull's White-tailed
Eagles by tagging them just before they fledge, & these tags are often
visible to us when we spot Eagles from our boats, so we can report movements of
individual birds. During August, we actually recorded more sightings of Sea
Eagles than of Minke whales (- just!), seeing them an average of once every
three days. (I don't know whether this is good for the Eagles or bad for the
whales!...)

19th September was a particularly
memorable White-tailed day, as our faithful "pair" of Eagles, that we had
observed flying together for 2 whole months, were suddenly joined by another,
usurper juvenile!! This caused much excitement for our RSPB Mull Officer, Dave
Sexton (to whom we report all our Sea Eagle sightings). He speculated this
young male upstart may well jeopardise the weeks of pair-bonding already
established between our "happy" couple. "New blood" and all that? Or maybe she
was doing a Mrs Robinson!? We shall have to wait until next season to find out
which young male stood the test of time... Once bonded, Eagles do usually mate
for life; unless something happens to their chosen partner & they have to
pick again.

We watched a local pair of Peregrine Falcons
successfully rear and fledge 3 chicks during Spring 2006, from the respective
distance of our boats! These adult birds continued to be seen, maturing throughout
August & into September, so fingers crossed they will return to breed
successfully again next year. Sparrow Hawks have also been sighted a few times
during this year's trips trips, and we have watched Hen harriers hunting over CalveIsland.
We even spotted a Marsh Harrier over the Isle of Coll, in the second half of
August! So our feathered friends have given us a splendid audience, when the
whales were harder to find..

Now, you know it's been a tough day on the water
when your Skipper comes back and writes "sunshine", or even "carrot cake", on
the Sightings board. (Mind you, anyone who's sampled Jenny's cake from the Isle
of Muck tearoom, mid whale-watch, won't be surprised that her home-baking
skills are being recorded.)But our
ever-faithful Harbour Porpoises have been happily observed almost every day,
through-out the whole season - woohoo! They really are rather special, as the
smallest cetacean in Europe. And are still
under serious threat in the U.K from By-Catch - accidental death through
entanglement in fishing gear. So we ARE very privileged to see them here so
frequently.

This August was also a bumper month for Basking
Sharks, with sightings EVERY OTHER DAY!, & almost EVERY day during the
first week of September! These huge fish, the second largest in ALL of the
world's oceans, filter microscopic plankton; only needing to remain at the
surface to feed, as they extract oxygen via seawater through their gills. And
once you've seen one zig-zagging through plankton caught in the tide-lines,
like they're mining a seam of coal, it's not unusual to spot a handful more,
making the most of the rich feeding areas. A fair few times this summer our SLS
boat was "surrounded" by 4 or 5 sharks. And they can reach 10m in length!! Our
last Basking Shark of the 2006 season was spotted on 17th September.

Basking Shark sightings during August were almost
rivalled by the numbers of Sunfish seen this year. And this may reflect climate
change too. When I first started guiding for SLS, in the summer of 2004, I
remember a total of 5 Sunfish spotted over the whole season. A year later, that
figure reached a massive 23, and in 2006, 15 were sighted in August alone! Like
the Common dolphins, these giant-flatterned-discs of fish prefer warmer waters,
& have been reported in large numbers off the Cornish coast in recent
years. August is usually their peak month in cooler Scottish seas, with the
warm waters of the Gulf stream & the
effects of the tropical Hebridean sun(!) heating up the sea all summer.. But
this may be another trend to watch with sea temperatures rising, as another
indicator species of climate change.

Regular seasonal changes for 2006 included "Baby"
Puffins seen as late as 11th September, in the mouth of the Sound of
Mull. These juveniles haven't
yet got the characteristicbeaks of the
familiar adults - their's are more slender, & lacking the vibrant colours,
they look more like they've been up a chimney!

We also had increased sightings of Great Northern,
Red-throated and Black-throated Divers during the third and fourth weeks of
September. Lots of migrant birds towards the end of September, including plenty
of Golden Plover, and even a rare, rather lost-looking Little Gull on 24th
September!

For many, the end of Season highlight was a
perfectly white, fluffy Atlantic Grey Seal pup, on the Cairns of Coll, on 29th
September. This new-born, with protective mother close at hand, was being
taught how to swim! in the shallows, watched respectfully by a boat-load of
gooey passengers. And this was also a first for one of our SLS Skippers, which
to my understanding, had him more excited than most of his customers - Bless. x
So, even if you are out there on the sea all-day, every-day; you'll still see
something new & unique to you, that gets your heart going like it's your
first time on the water.

I want to end by sharing with you something that
Colin Speedie has to say. He's respectively The Main Man of the Shark Trust,
who SLS regularly swop sightings with during the season, as he sails and
surveys the Scottish waters. Thanks to him, the Wildlife Trust, and his
Earthwatch crew of volunteers, aboard sailing yacht "Forever Changes", for
hours of endless dedication to our cause. In my humble opinion, this just about
sums it up.. (- taken from Wildlife Trusts' "Natural World" magazine, Spring
2006.):

"Imagine
a wilderness full of exotic creatures, some bigger than an elephant, some as
flamboyant as a parakeet, some as cute as a meerkat. Imagine too, that it's no
more than a few hours away from home,. without the pollution of long-haul
flights, and it's there to see all year round. You'd want to visit it, wouldn't
you?

Well, you can. It's
called the sea, and it's right here.."

(- All the rest written by Sealife Surveys' Head Guide, Erika Hearn.)

__________________________________________

Sightings
Summary for Season 2005,
Isle of Mull

Minke Whale
Minke whale sightings in May and June were regular and consistent, both
in geographic location and type of feeding behaviour observed. Feeding
was found to be taking place in roughly the same areas during these
first two months of the season - between entrance to the Sound
of Mull/Ardnamurchan and the North Coll coast. Lots of surface feeding
was observed with strong associations with feeding seabirds, the main
species being the auks (guillemots and razorbills) and kittiwakes. The
sightings during this first half of the season were usually of individual
whales or occasionally two or three whales at a time. No close associations
with the boat were encountered during May or June.

There was a noticeable shift
in the distribution of the feeding whales from mid-June onwards with
a low number whales sighted in the feeding grounds between Ardnamurchan
and Coll. Instead, sightings were concentrated further south, between
the Treshnish Isles and Staffa. Again, Minke sightings were strongly
associated with feeding seabirds (guillemots, razorbills and kittiwakes)
and large numbers of Manx shearwaters. By the last week of June, the
whales had shifted further south into Loch na Keal, an open sea loch.
Whales continued to feed almost exclusively in Loch na Keal for the
next four weeks with few reports of whales anywhere else within our
search area. The number of whales in Loch na Keal appeared to remain
fairly consistent with an estimated 10 and 20 whales feeding in the
loch at any one time. However, it is believed that different groups
of whales were periodically moving in and out of the loch during this
time, rather than the same individuals staying in the area for the entire
four weeks. This assumption is based on the presence of mainly juvenile
whales in the early observations which were later replaced by larger
adults in the latter part of the four week period. It is worth noting
the presence of two calves (approx 2.5-3 m) throughout the entire four
week period which were usually seen feeding together, along with other
juveniles. Sightings remained consistent in terms of feeding behaviour
and number of whales feeding at any one time. Whales appeared to be
feeding in groups rather than individually as sightings were often of
more than five or more whales at a time. Feeding was mainly taking place
at the surface with lots of lunge feeding and a few close associations
with the boat.

From mid-July onwards there
were no more whales sighted in Loch na Keal. The sudden disappearance
of the whales may indicate that they left the area around the same time.
Reports of feeding Minke whales off Shetland, Orkney and in the Moray
Firth coincided with the sudden absence of whales in our area. Comparisons
between dorsal fin Photo-ID shots of the Loch na Keal whales with the
Moray Firth whales will help to establish whether the same individuals
were seen in both locations and will provide important information on
the movements of the North-East Atlantic population of Minke whales.
Minke whale sightings from mid-July to mid-September throughout the
rest of our area were few and far between. Sightings were mainly of
individual whales and no more surface feeding was observed. Instead
the feeding behaviour consisted of long dives (5-8 minutes) in between
brief surfaces, indicating feeding/foraging was taking place lower down
in the water column. Since the whales disappeared from the area, very
few seabirds were observed feeding. Of particular concern was the absence
of kittiwakes and razorbills from mid-July onwards, around the same
time the whales were last seen feeding in the area. In addition, few
guillemots were spotted with their chicks and the puffins on Lunga (Treshnish
Isles) left the burrows two weeks early. Instead of leaving the burrows
at the end of July/beginning of August the colonies were empty by mid-July,
indicating that perhaps they did not breed. Manx shearwaters and Gannets
were seen fairly regularly throughout the season. Gannets began to appear
in noticeably larger numbers during August and have been seen feeding
since then very close to the coast, most likely feeding on mackerel.
After the complete absence of kittiwakes from mid-July, they started
to come back into the area at the beginning of September although no
'hurries' of kittiwakes feeding were observed.

Other sightings
Basking sharks were sighted throughout the season from May to mid-September,
with the highest numbers sighted in August.
Other interesting observations include the high number of sunfish sightings
this season. Sunfish are brought up with the warmer waters of the Gulf
Stream. They are usually only seen a few times a season. It is possible
that the unusually high numbers seen in 2005 is an indication of warmer
sea temperatures.
Common dolphins have been seen on six separate occasions throughout
the season with one group of about 30 individuals seen on two consecutive
days in roughly the same area (between Coll and Muck).
Bottlenose dolphins were sighted on 9 separate occasions with one sighting
in September of approximately 30 individuals. This group spent a couple
of days in the Sound of Mull, slowly travelling northwards. They were
last seen heading down the west coast of Mull towards the Treshnish
Isles.

Laura Mandleberg
Crew 2005

AUGUST 2005

I'm afraid my optimism for
a return to normal in the seas in our area during August proved to be
unfounded. Very poor to nil levels of feed in our waters have proved
disastrous for our sea bird colonies breeding this year, and this has
also manifested itself in the very marked lack of whales this month.
The reasons for all this are difficult to explain, but climatic and
environmental changes appear to be the cause. The marine picture, however,
is always very complex, and we shall have to be patient, and wait to
see if this is a one off phenomenon this year only, or whether things
will be back to normal next year.

However not all has been
doom and gloom. We have had some exceptionally good sightings of basking
shark, whose numbers have been well up this month, and really good numbers
of harbour porpoises. We have also seen far more sunfish than in past
years.

Regrettably this is my last
report. After some 18 years or so running sea trips here on Mull, Jenny
and I have decided to retire from business, and hand over the reins
to the Tobermory based Sea Life Surveys, who we have worked very closely
with over the years. They are intending to continue running Inter-Island
Cruises from Croig in the same manner that we have done. We wish them
every success in the future.

To all our past customers,
many of you returning year after year, we say farewell, and thank you
for your support over the years. To all our past crews, who worked so
hard with such enthusiasm during their seasons aboard Flamer, my grateful
thanks. I couldn't have done it without you.

OUR TOTAL SIGHTINGS FOR THE MONTH ARE:

MINKE WHALES 6

HARBOUR PORPOISE 170

BASKING SHARKS 57

SUNFISH 10

SIGHTINGS UPDATE FOR JULY 2005

We concluded the previous
month with some wonderful days whale watching in Loch na Keal in the
south west of the island, and I am pleased to be able to report that
we continued the beginning of July with day after day of excellent whale
watching in the same location up until the 15th of the month, when suddenly
the feed supply was exhausted, and the whales left the loch. Unfortunately
whales do not leave a note of where they are going next, so we have
spent quite a number of days since, hunting in and around our area trying
to locate their presence.

During this search we have
encountered a good number of harbour porpoises, a lot with calves, some
good sightings of basking sharks and on the 22nd of July, a very active
group of about 20 common dolphins, mostly mothers and calves.

The 24th and 27th July saw
us with some brief sightings of minke whales. These were travelling
through the area, and did not appear to be feeding.

We have come across 2 sun
fish this month. One was quite small, but the other was massive, and
with very distinctive spotted skin.

As the month came to an end,
we have started to see much better feed levels in the water, and mackerel
have arrived in larger numbers now, as have the number of gannets feeding
on them. Here's hoping for a really good August, with minke whales back
in our area in the numbers we expect at this time of the summer.

OUR TOTAL SIGHTINGS FOR THE MONTH ARE:

MINKE WHALES 72

PORPOISE 61

BASKING SHARK 7

COMMON DOLPHINS 20

SUNFISH 2

SIGHTINGS
UPDATE FOR JUNE

2005

What a great month this has
been for whale watching. Not so the weather here on the west coast.
We are still waiting for our summer to start, but at least we had to
make very few cancellations.

We have had some very early
sightings of basking sharks off the north end of Coll, and in one or
two other places. Our first sightings were on the last day of May, and
then on the 3rd June, we saw 5 big adult sharks to the west of Coll.
Common dolphins appeared on the 4th June and we had a big group of some
40 common dolphins on the 6th and again on the 8th of the month. On
both days the dolphins were feeding in the same area, and we recognised
a number of familiar ones on the second occasion. Although they were
busy feeding, they stayed with us for about an hour, and we had the
usual wonderful displays that only these wonderful creatures can produce.

The 11th of June produced
our first blank day of the season when we failed to find any whales
off the usual grounds off the island of Coll, so we moved areas to the
south and spent practically the whole of the rest of the month around
the Treshnish Isles, Staffa and Loch na Keal with some of the best days
whale watching we have ever experienced. The culmination was a flat
calm day on the 21st of the month when we had 10 whales around the boat,
and we stopped with the engine off for 3 hours, and watched a continuous
display of lunge feeding, including breaching, and many close associations
with the boat including spy hops and circling around and under the boat.

The whales in Loch na Keal
have been feeding on vast shoals of sand eels, and we have also enjoyed
the huge hurries of sea birds that have accompanied this feeding.

It is now the first week
of July, and the settled weather has been broken by an unseasonal southerly
gale, so we await to see what effect this will have on the whale distribution
in this favoured area.

OUR TOTAL SIGHTINGS FOR THE MONTH ARE:

MINKE WHALES 77

PORPOISE 61

BASKING SHARK 9

COMMON DOLPHIN 72

SIGHTINGS
UPDATE FOR MAY

2005

Well, here we are again at
the start of a new season, with the first month of whale watching under
our belt, and it has certainly been a very encouraging start. Although
summer weather has yet to arrive on the west coast of Scotland, we have
lost very few days to bad weather, although the very heavy and prolonged
rain and wind over the Spring Bank holiday did cause a few cancellations,
and apologies to the people who we were unable to take out over that
time.

Sightings have been really
good right from the start, and we are proud to say that to date we have
had 100% success rate on all our trips, even on our Treshnish Isles
trips, which are not whale watching trips!

Our 20 days at sea so far
have produced some excellent sightings of lunge feeding on what appears
to be really good stocks of sand eels, with masses of bird hurries,
and some very exciting close feeding experiences. ( photographs to follow
)

Amazingly, we have had some
fairly regular sightings of basking sharks from 14th May onwards, which
is very early for this species, but does demonstrate the quantity of
plankton in the water at the moment.

On the 24th May we had the
privilege of enjoying the presence of a single bottlenose dolphin at
the Cairns of Coll, that accompanied in and out of our lunch time anchorage,
and put on a wonderful display of leaping and associating with the boat.

We did not encounter any
common dolphins until the beginning of June, but more of that next month.

Welcome Laura as our crew
and wild life guide this year. Laura is a marine biologist, and an experienced
whale watcher, and oh boy! Can she spot whales.